The instant invention relates to stitching (stapling) apparatus used in document feeding systems, and more particularly to the stitch head support bar and the clincher support bar in a stitching device.
There are many applications today in which documents are fed along a feed path and then collated for further processing. In many cases the documents must be properly aligned prior to insertion into an envelope. In a significant number of applications, it is necessary that the documents be secured to one another, i.e. stitched or stapled together. There is a universal stitcher that is well known in the art and it is available for a variety of applications in which stapling of documents is required. However, experience with this universal stitcher has revealed several problems maintaining alignment of the stitch head to the clincher due to the fact that both the stitch head mounting bar and the clincher mounting bar were secured independently of each other. When the mounting bars are not properly aligned, the staples are not consistently formed.
The instant invention accordingly overcomes the problems associated with the prior art stitcher by providing a fixturing plate which secures the stitch head mounting bar and the clincher mounting bar to each other in order to assure that the staples are consistently aligned to the clincher.